Musings on seeing God's loving sovereign hand in all of my life as wife, mom, grandmother, sister and friend. Thoughts on finding joy in God and beauty in all aspects of my life including MCS, gardening, homemaking, chronic illness and numerous food allergies.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Blessings in Disguise

In the past three months or so living in Colorado we have had a couple major hiccups with our new home that initially caused our view of life to tilt out of focus and to question "why?" As time passed, we have seen God's hand making them huge blessings in disguise!

Our first glitch happened the day after we move into our home. I was in cleaning our master closet which is attached to the master bath where I noticed a mold smell as I went into an immediate severe asthma attack. We, instead of moving things in, sealed off the bath and closet from the rest of home and set up camping out in the guest room with our master suite things piled in various other parts of our home. This was beginning of an over two month process of mold mitigation and remodel of our master suite. We finally moved into it mid July, but still have no sink or vanity in our bath so we are still using the one down the hall.

When I first had my asthma attack and realized it was mold, I was so very discouraged. Between the physical and emotional exhaustion of moving, I was also very homesick for our dear friends and church body in Arizona. That combination set up for a perfect storm which in my case was a major emotional meltdown. As I wept, I feared we had moved from one dangerous environment into another. In spite of God's obvious leading each step of our move, I began to have serious questions and doubts.

God was so kind to me and sent me a visible reminder of His past faithfulness and care the very next morning. That reminder was to wake up to a snow storm on Mother's Day. How was snow on Mother's Day a kind reminder from God? The only other snowy Mother's Day I had experienced was 31 years earlier where we sat in a dark hospital waiting room in the midst of a blizzard that had knocked out power in the entire city. Our, then eight week old, son was having emergency surgery for a strangulated herniated bowel. The operating room was kept light and powered by generators while much of the nonessential parts of the hospitals were dark. God took us through that and our son not only recovered quickly but began to finally thrive after that surgery. Today our son is a godly, hard working, loving husband and father married to a lovely woman and has two darling daughters! (Yes this Nana is a bit predjuciced!) God used the snow to remind me of His ever faithful and loving care.

Mother's Day Snow

The newly remodeled master bedroom, closet and bath are so much healthier for me with my sensitivities and allergic reactions. Where before it was all wall to wall carpeting, which is a "no-no" for anybody with serious allergies or MCS, it is now ceramic tile and chemical free MCS friendly Kahrs wood floors. Joel ordered and used special grouts, caulks and paints free of toxic chemicals and VOCs. Afterwards we ran an air purifier on high several days before moving into the space. It is now a safe reaction free space for me. What a huge blessing!

Joel prepping for mold mitigation

Joel looking like a character from the movie Outbreak just prior to entering the sealed off area to do mold mitigation

Having found the mold issue before we moved any clothing onto the closet kept our clothes from all becoming contaminated with mold spores was another blessing. If I hadn't had an immediate reaction we could have ended up like Kathryn Chastain Treat who had to dispose of all her clothes that had become contaminated by molds.

Since I was wearing old work clothes I immediately disposed of them and showered to prevent any further contamination. Our mold ended up only being the underside of the vanity from a prior leak and a small portion of the wall behind one side of the vanity and whole inside of toilet (very weird) but lead to new floor coverings, some dry wall, under layment, paint, new vanity, sinks, toilet, lights and trim tile.

The second major hiccup turned blessing was caused by an unusually stormy May and June in Colorado. Our home ended up being one of around 80,000 homes in the Denver and surrounding areas with hail damage. Yesterday the insurance adjuster and roofing contractor were here. Our roof is totaled, we have damaged screens, roof vents and wood trim around the garage door and front porch. All the yards in our neighborhood have sprouted signs from various roofing companies and contractors. We will soon be joining their ranks. The roofing contractor said he will take the insurance payment and upgrade our roof to class 4 impact resistant roofing with 50 year guarantee which will lower our homeowners insurance nearly $200 a year and mean we hopefully can go many more years without needing to pay another deductible. The savings on insurance will pay for this deductible in only a few years. We can take the amount allotted money for the repair and painting of the exterior trim and be our own contractor which means any funds left after purchasing supplies will go in our pockets. So God is blessing us with not only a new roof, but a better and stronger one, that will continue to save us money. Joel was already planning on painting the outside house trim before the snow flies and now the cost of that will be provided for too! Isn't it great how God can take what look like such negatives to us humanly and bring blessings from them!!

I am hoping I learn from these lessons to more quickly see how God is working in the harder things or the things that don't go my way. That the times I don't understand that I will remember His past faithfulness rather than to question or doubt. Praying God will enable me to remember His ways are not my way and are so much higher and better than mine.

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways

declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

These blessings in disguise remind me of one of my favorite songs that has so touched me the last three years called Blessings by Laura Story. My dear readers please take a moment to let this song minister to your souls.